By Hafsah Tilde
Mr Osita Okechukwu, the Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), says Nigeria has advanced as a liberal democratic state.
Okechukwu said this on Sunday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He said that the democratic system allows for checks and balances which reduce the rate of impunity in the country.
Liberal democracy emphasises the separation of powers, an independent judiciary and a system of checks and balances between branches of government.
Multi-party systems with at least two persistent, viable political parties are characteristic of liberal democracies.
“For those who do not agree that we’ve advanced, I do not blame them, for them, they think that democracy is a revolution.
“Democracy is not a revolution, all these growth and advancements that took place in democracy were incremental.
“If it’s when Buhari was military head of state, he doesn’t need to go to the National Assembly to bargain for the budget, all he needed was to sit somewhere and the thing moves on.
“But because liberal democracy is founded on freedom, values of liberal state is that the left should know what the right hand is doing, and the right should know what the left is doing.
“That’s why we have the parliament that provides checks and balances, the checks and balances can delay the speed of governance.”
He said that overtime, the electoral process in the country has improved from what obtains in 1999.
“There have been a lot of improvement, yes, there are challenges, there are flaws, because we’re all human beings”
Okechukwu added that during the just concluded elections, a commercial motorcycle operator, got elected while sitting governors lost their bid to get into the chambers.
He said such occurrences, which happened in some parts of the country during the elections, was a tremendous leap for a strong democratic values and ethos.
The VON DG advised the incoming administration to continue with critical infrastructure that the Buhari administration has established.
He added that the incoming administration should provide funds for educational institutions and invest more on human capital development.
On the calls for international community’s intervention in the 2023 General Election, Okechukwu said that was not necessary following the democratic steps already taken by stakeholders.
“The gladiators, both the winners and those that lost are all in court, so why don’t they allow the court, because they are the last segment.
“INEC has done its bit, the political parties have done their bit, and elections have been held, so no point of anybody intervening.
“All we pray for is that the law and justice should, in their own wisdom, be transparent for the interest of Nigeria. And for us to have trust in our system, their transparency is required,” he said. (NAN)
